Joke of the Week  

 A visitor to Israel attended a recital and concert at the Moscovitz Auditorium, and was quite impressed with the architecture and the acoustics.

He inquired of the tour guide, "Is this magnificent  auditorium named after "Chaim Moscovitz, the famous Talmudic scholar?"

"No," replied the guide. "It is named after Sam Moscovitz, the writer."

Never heard of him. What did he write?"

"A check..." replied the guide.

 News from Israel...

Weekly Torah Portion Commentary  -   

Courtesy of Rabbi Michael Gold   

       The major theme of this portion is free will. God sends before the people a blessing and a curse. If they obey God's commandments they will have a blessing. If they disobey God's commandments they will have a curse. Each of us has free will. As the Torah teaches Cain, "Surely if you do right there is uplift, but if you do not do right sin crouches at the door, its urge is towards you, yet you can be its master." (Genesis 4:7) People have the ability to choose.
       But do we humans really have free will? Many have argued that there is no free will. All our actions are determined in advance and out of our control. Some say, "The devil made me do it." There are malevolent forces in the universe that cause us to act in inappropriate ways. In ancient times people would blame their actions on the stars. That is why Shakespeare could write the words of Cassius planning the murder of Julius Caesar, "The fault dear Brutus is not in our stars but in ourselves." Of course today we blame not the stars but our genes. If Shakespeare lived today, he might have written that "the fault lies in our genes."
       Some claim there is a natural, chemical cause for everything we do. Most egregious is the famous Twinkie Defense of Dan White, former San Francisco city supervisor. In 1978 White murdered San Francisco mayor George Moscone and fellow supervisor and gay activist Harvey Milk. White used the defense that too much sugar had caused his brain and impulses to work improperly. Therefore he was not responsible for his actions. This defense helped convince the jury to convict him not on premeditated murder but rather on the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. In this case, "the sugar made me do it." (A well-received 2008 movie Milk was based on this case, winning Sean Penn a Best Actor Academy Award.)
           Today many continue to argue that free will is an illusion. They use scientific, philosophical, and religious arguments to teach that we have no choice. Let me give a brief example of each:
       Science - In a famous experiment in the 1970's, Benjamin Libet tested whether a conscious decision or neural activity comes first. He found that motor actions begin within the body 350 milliseconds before the subject made the conscious decision to take such actions. In other words, before we even consciously decide to act, our body is already in motion taking the action. It is as if our body acts before our will even comes into play; what we think of as free will is an afterthought, a mere illusion. Our body decides of its own accord.
       Philosophy - Many great philosophers have denied the existence of free will. Perhaps the most influential was the Jewish born Benedict Spinoza. Spinoza argued that there is no real difference between the body and the soul, both are part of one reality - God or nature. Spinoza also argued that God equals nature and nature equals God; his most famous quote is Deus sive Natura - God, or nature. He was a pure pantheist. Therefore when we act, it is really God, or nature acting. Again free will is but an illusion. For his radical views, Spinoza was excommunicated by the Jewish community of Amsterdam.
       Religion - If God is omnipotent (all powerful) and omniscient (all knowing), then nothing happens without God's knowledge. Everything we do has already been pre-determined in the mind of God. This creates one of the great paradoxes of religion. Rabbi Akiba taught, "Everything is foreseen yet freedom is granted." (Avot 3:19) The Bible is filled with references to God taking away free will. The most famous was God hardening Pharaoh's heart. The Rabbis of the Midrash teach that if someone does the wrong thing enough times, God takes away the ability ever to do the right thing. "Resh Lakish said ... God gives a person one, two, and three opportunities to do repentance. If he does not repent, God locks his heart from repentance to punish him for his sin." (Exodus Rabbah 13:3)
        People who do the wrong thing can blame science, religion, and philosophy; they can blame the devil, their genes, or sugary snacks. But this week's portion stands up to all these ideas and proclaims, human beings have free will. And having free will, we are responsible for our actions.